State Fires Director Of Chicago Read Mental Health Center

March 29, 1988|By Jean Davidson.

The superintendent of the Chicago Read Mental Health Center, which has been a target of recent complaints about deplorable conditions, poor treatment and overcrowding, has been dismissed from his post, a spokesman for the Illinois Department of Mental Health said Monday.

The decision to remove Dr. Krishna Lall, 52, as director of one of the state`s largest and most troubled mental health facilities was a cumulative one, according to David Devane, the Mental Health Department spokesman.

Lall was fired Saturday by Ann Kiley, department director, Devane said. His position had been in jeopardy since last fall, when Kiley was called upon by a state legislative committee to respond to reports that Chicago Read`s unit for deaf patients had been without a sign language interpreter for months. In addition, the joint legislative committee expressed outrage over filthy and unsafe conditions discovered at Chicago-Read, 4200 N. Oak Park Ave., during a surprise visit by a patient advocacy group.

Also, earlier this month, 67 Chicago Read psychiatrists, psychologists and other clinical workers signed a protest memo to Lall. The memo, dated March 9, complained about Lall`s insistence that therapists fill out time-consuming and repetitive reports that forced them ``to choose between paper compliance and adequate patient care.`` A copy of the memo was obtained by The Tribune.

State mental health officials have since hired a temporary coordinator of services for the deaf. Watchdog groups had complained that the absence of a sign-language interpreter had made it impossible for staff with limited signing skills to communicate with patients. The shortage of signing staff, watchdog groups said, was potentially dangerous because untrained workers sometimes ordered restraints for patients whose attempts to communicate were mistaken for threatening gestures.

Lall, who had been superintendent at the 605-bed hospital since 1983, also is a defendant in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, charging abuses and overcrowding in the Henry Horner juvenile unit there.

``Director Kiley felt the facility would benefit from a change in leadership and program improvements,`` Devane said. The staff memo, according to Devane, was ``one of the indicators that a change was needed.``

The new superintendent of Chicago Read is Jon Steinmetz, who has been assistant director at Tinley Park Mental Health Center and is a 25-year department veteran. Attempts to reach Lall for comment Monday were

unsuccessful. He has been reassigned to a position in the department`s federal programs office, Devane said.